Today we’d like to introduce you to John Schneider.
Hi John, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My journey started back around 2018. I was working at a gym as a fitness coach and personal training, but felt trapped and somewhat limited in both the environment and regulation of the gym.
So I started training people on my own outside the gym, using a tool known as Thumbtack to start finding potential clients. It was tough at first and required a bit of investment, but eventually started to get the ball rolling a bit for training people at their home. However I figured it wouldn’t go too far and that maybe I’ll continue to stick with working at as gym as my main gig and my own business as a small side hustle.
Fast forward and I soon started to gain traction for a few group classes that were filling up with 30 people or more at the gym. I thought: “this is gonna be my year!”. Turns out that dream was demolished, once COVID hit.
COVID wiped out any chance for rebuilding what was now lost, with the gym shutdown and the economy slowly tanking. I had to go and work several odd jobs to make ends meet. However out of this difficulty, a spark of hope blossomed. The clients I once had at the gym and the clients I trained outside the gym, wanted to start doing in-home. Since the gyms were closed and people were worried about going to public places, my side business started to grow and became established with a foundational base of clients.
Along with this virtual training was also born, creating diversity with the application of my personal training services. From then on the business slowly grew. It was a tough first year, but now the business continues to pick up speed each year. What once was a pipe dream with barely any equipment, now has a fully developed basement studio for clients to train, or take the training to their own home/over zoom. Furthermore I could not have the skills I currently have as a personal trainer (especially helping people in pain) without a company by the name of Functional Patterns, who has improved my skills and helped me grow as trainer through their certification courses.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road was not a smooth one. The first year of my business was a struggle to generate a quality amount of income to keep things running. It was tough trying to find new/potential clients as the business was not well known, nor had a long list of reviews from previous customers. On top of this, their was no website, nor any form advertising in place.
It was also tough finding valuable clients that matched or could accustom their own self to this type of training, that is not traditional, nor related to the general type of training for the human body that you see in almost every gym around the world. Furthermore it was hard finding clients close to my location or within my local area, who were the specific types of clients I was trying to target. They were ones who have struggled with pain in their joints for many years, tried many modalities, but still not getting the proper answers needed.
Lastly, I had to slowly build and invest back into the business to obtain basic equipment for a small in-home studio or for training clients at their home. Now I only have one equipment left to purchase to complete my whole studio gym.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
SchneiderPT is a business focused around the optimization of the human body from a longevity and peak human health perspective. Overall the main focus is on the improvement human biomechanics in regards to a evolutionary blueprint in regards to how a person stands, runs, walks, or throws. In other words assessing a person’s posture and their gait cycle. This idea stems from a company known as Functional Patterns who has certified the owner as a human biomechanics specialist. Many of the customers that walk into SchneiderPT have a history or a stubborn part of the body dealing with constant pain or consistent injuries. The goal at SchneiderPT is to develop their biomechanics to the point they become close to, or fully pain-free, while making lifestyle changes (such as grounding/earthing) to prevent the risk of future diseases that impact many within are society today.
The fitness industry is far behind with how to properly train the human body in a way that will lead to things such as joint replacement surgery, steroid shots, or other forms of pain management that don’t take things far enough. If you want to prevent this and continue to move better as you age, rather than move less and continue to stay stuck in the same cycle of pain, then SchneiderPT is the place to visit for an intro session.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love Baltimore for the visiting nice restaurants, scenic views of the harbor, lovely walks during sunny days, and the museums to be visited such as the Maryland science center.
I dislike the crowdedness, hard finding parking spots, the air pollution, and multiple cell or wifi towers that produce too much EMF (electromagnetic frequencies).
Pricing:
- 1 Hour In-Studio Session: $60
- 1 Hour In-Home Session: $65
- 1 Hour Virtual Session: $55
- Walking to Wellness Group Class: $20 for 30 mins or $30 for 60 mins
- Large Group Training (3-5 People) Session: In-Studio: $100 per hour, per person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.schneiderpt.info
- Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/md/arnold/personal-trainers/schneiderpt/service/348847179686920201
